Inspired by the university's new statement of strategic vision and themes, the invitation promised dinner and a "Conversation with the President" to provide feedback - good and bad - and ideas to help chart the future course for Susquehanna.
More than 600 alumni, parents and friends responded, making for one of the most successful series of alumni events in Susquehanna history.
They came out to locations in Allentown and Hershey, Pa.; Basking Ridge and Camden, N.J.; Boston, Westport, Conn., Washington, D.C.; and Sarasota, Fla. Nearly 150 people turned out in Selinsgrove, and several more will have their say when the series concludes with an April event in Johnstown, Pa.
Proposing Strategic Initiatives
"I am struck by the many ways in which the comments from our alumni and friends play on similar themes to those we have heard from the campus community," says Susquehanna President L. Jay Lemons. "It's become clear that people who have obtained a Susquehanna degree and those who are creating the present educational experience share an appreciation of the values and tradition and want to see them carried into the university's future."
The off-campus sessions complement the University's campus-wide strategic planning efforts and preparation for Susquehanna's 2004 10-year accreditation review by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. A series of task forces are using the vision and themes statement as a framework for proposing initiatives for a draft strategic plan. The plan will be presented to the board of directors in spring 2003 for their adoption in the fall of 2003.
Graduates from Across Decades
The events provided opportunities for alumni, parents, and friends to interact with faculty and administrators who facilitated the sessions, including the deans of Susquehanna's three schools: Laura de Abruņa for Arts, Humanities and Communications, Terry Winegar for Natural and Social Sciences, and Jim Brock for the Sigmund Weis School of Business, plus Professor of History Linda McMillin, Associate Professor of Biology Dave Richard and Vice President for University Relations Ron Cohen.
Alumni and friends shared stories that illustrated their involvement with Susquehanna. Guests were asked to suggest ideas for helping the university meet its goals in the area of building a stronger community: one that, in the words of the statement of strategic vision and themes, "Expects all - students and faculty, staff and administrators, alumni and friends - to contribute to learning."
(See here for the complete Statement of Strategic Vision and Themes.)
Strong, Two-Way Connections
The sessions produced several hundred responses. Among the most common themes were:
- establishing stronger connections between the university, the local community and alumni.
- increasing Susquehanna's national visibility,
- encouraging interdisciplinary connections,
- keeping a balance of liberal arts vs. career programs, and
- considering the impact of and maintaining sensitivity to rising tuition and fees.
Among the many suggestions were building on traditional strengths in areas such as music and business and expanding majors for non-traditional students. Some participants urged SU to keep the "small school environment" while others stressed the need for increasing connections to the larger world and promoting the value of diversity. Others offered comments about the university's historic Lutheran heritage and whether it should consider offering graduate programs.
"We are so pleased to have gathered a great many insightful and thought-provoking comments and ideas that are enriching this dialogue," says President Lemons. "Our challenge is to construct a framework of goals and priorities to guide Susquehanna over the next 5-10 years, and I look forward to sharing that framework with alumni and friends so that we can work together to advance our university."
Watch future issues of Susquehanna Today for more information on the progress toward a new strategic plan. Want to add your own comments? Feel free to write to President Lemons and the Strategic Planning Advisory Group at 514 University Avenue, Selinsgrove PA 17870-1164.
Draft Statement
of Strategic Vision and Themes
Endorsed by the Faculty, March 25, 2002, and the Susquehanna University Board of Directors, May 13, 2002
Vision
Susquehanna University is a distinctive national liberal arts college committed to excellence in achieving its mission of educating undergraduate students for productive and reflective lives of achievement, leadership, and service in a diverse and changing world.
Commitments
Susquehanna University is:
Committed to greater intellectual engagement that:
- Integrates liberal and professional education
- Promotes disciplinary and interdisciplinary collaboration
- Explores the meaning and value embedded in the diversity of human experience
- Connects practice and experience to scholarly reflection
- Fosters civic engagement - from the local to the global
Committed to a stronger Susquehanna University community that:
- Expects all - students and faculty, staff and administrators, alumni and friends - to contribute to learning
- Finds strength in the diversity and contributions of all its members
- Evokes a common sense of purpose and the value of shared experiences
- Provides a learning experience that fosters the development of the whole person: body, mind, and spirit
Requirements
- Matching our resources to our commitments
- Transforming our practices to accomplish objectives creatively and collaboratively
- Assessing our efforts in ways that foster realistic appraisal and continuous improvement
SU Board Elects New Chair
At its February 10 meeting, the Susquehanna board of directors elected as its chair Terry L. March '67, president and chief executive officer of Midwood Securities, Inc. in New York City. He has been a securities industry professional for more than 30 years, with senior-level responsibilities in finance, marketing, investment banking, and strategic planning.
March earned a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting. He has held a variety of senior posts at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., Dillon Read & Co. Inc., and Price Waterhouse & Co. in New York. In 1982, he opened the consulting and auditing firm of March and Thompson, selling the firm seven years later and starting Midwood Securities.
He is active in numerous industry, educational and community organizations. He is a member of the New York Stock Exchange and of the New York area firms advisory committee to the NYSE board of directors. He is also chair of the Securities Industry Association's institutional brokerage committee and a director of the Securities Industry Institute at Wharton.
Active as a volunteer for Susquehanna since 1987, March is largely responsible for organizing a network of alumni who work in the New York financial services industry. He chaired the National Committee on Annual Giving from 1993-1995, was major gifts chair for the Susquehanna 2000: The Next Challenge capital campaign and is a past president of the Alumni Association. In 1998, he was awarded the university's Alumni Achievement Award. He currently serves on the Sigmund Weis School of Business Advisory Council.
March joined the Susquehanna board in 1990 and has served on the Property and Finance Committee, chairing that committee's Investment Subcommittee. He also chaired the Development and Public Relations Committee. He became a vice chair of the board in 2000. He succeeds Nicholas A. Lopardo '68 as chair.
Active in many eastern Long Island, New York, community groups, including the Association of The Southampton Hospital, March is a native of Newport, Pa. He and his wife, Pauline, live in Water Mill, N.Y. They have two children and two grandchildren.
Jackson and Yenchko Join Board
Barry Jackson '68 and Suzanne Yenchko '68 are the newest members of the Susquehanna board of directors. Jackson was elected to a three-year term in October 2002. Yenchko joined the board as the representative of the Alumni Association for a three-year term effective February 10, 2003.
Jackson earned a Bachelor of Science degree in microeconomics. He and his wife, Denise Horton '68 Jackson, have a home in Annapolis, Md. Jackson is owner/operator of the Portshire, Inc. real estate investment firm. He is also the owner of Portshire Marine Services Corporation in Annapolis, Md., a lighting company in California, and an ice skating rink in Florida.
Jackson is on the board of directors of the Historic Annapolis Foundation and the Anne Arundel Medical Center Foundation. Together, the Jacksons serve on the Susquehanna University Leadership Development Committee (LDC) for the Baltimore/Washington, D.C., area.
Suzanne Yenchko '68, of Lemoyne, Pa., earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Susquehanna and the M.B.A. from Mount St. Mary's College in 1981. She most recently served as the regional public affairs manager for International Paper Co.
She was co-chair of the Harrisburg Area LDC during the Susquehanna 2000 campaign and she currently serves on the Alumni Association Executive Board and the Alumni Career Team.
Her business and civic leadership roles include serving as chair of the Governor's Commission on Women and the Harrisburg Library Campaign. Current and past board memberships include the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, the West Shore Library in Camp Hill, Pa., and the Harrisburg Community Theatre. She is also the secretary/treasurer of the Pennsylvania Chemical Industry Council.
Arlin Adams Center for Law and Society
March 13 Dialogue Will Focus on Hate Speech
Two national constitutional scholars, including the president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), will present a dialogue on hate speech sponsored by the Arlin M. Adams Center for Law and Society at Susquehanna University on Thursday, March 13, at 8 p.m. in the Degenstein Center Theater.
"Hate Speech: What Price Tolerance?" will feature ACLU President Nadine Strossen, and Mari J. Matsuda, professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center.
The dialogue will reflect attempts to balance of rights of free speech, as protected by the Constitution's first amendment, and equal protection, as guaranteed under the 14th amendment. Incidents such as racial epithets, radio shock-jocks, cross burnings, cyber hate sites, Holocaust deniers, and anti-gay preaching have posed often-conflicting opinions on the balance.
Gary S. Gildin, professor of law and director of the Miller Center for Public Interest Advocacy at Penn State Dickinson School of Law, will moderate the event.
Adams Center Marks Second Year
The dialogue marks the second full year of the Adams Center for Law and Society at Susquehanna University. The family of Sigfried and Janet Weis and the Degenstein Foundation of Sunbury, with support from The Annenberg Foundation, established the center in honor of prominent Philadelphia jurist Arlin Adams who served 17 years on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The center is intended to strengthen the intellectual dialogue at Susquehanna by raising issues that intersect academic disciplines and important societal questions. The center complements the university's legal studies, pre-law, and interdisciplinary offerings and serves as a resource to the greater community.
Nadine Strossen
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| Nadine Strossen
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Strossen, who has written, lectured, and practiced extensively in the areas of constitutional law, civil liberties and international human rights, will present the civil libertarian perspective at the dialogue. Elected president of the ACLU, the nation's largest and oldest civil liberties organization, in 1991, she is also a professor at New York School of Law, and co-author of Hate Speech, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
Strossen graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College (1972) and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School (1975), where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Before becoming a law professor, she practiced law for nine years in Minneapolis -- her hometown -- and New York City.
Mari Matsuda
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| Mari Matsuda
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Matsuda, co-author of the book Words that Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech, and the First Amendment, will discuss the challenges imposed by not regulating hate speech.
An expert in torts, constitutional law, legal history, feminist theory, critical race theory, and civil rights, she holds the J.D. from the University of Hawaii, and the L.L.M. from Harvard.
Before joining the Law Center, she had been a professor of law at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law and the University of Hawaii School of Law. She has also taught at Stanford Law School and the University of Hiroshima and served as a judicial training consultant in Micronesia and South Africa. She was an associate at the labor law firm of King & Nakamura in Honolulu and was law clerk to the Honorable Herbert Y.C. Choy of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
For further information, contact the Arlin Adams Center at 570-372-2784 or log on to www.susqu.edu/lawandsociety.
Can't Make it to Campus?
Catch the Choir on Their Three States Tour
Members of the Susquehanna University Choir will travel to locations in Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania during their annual spring tour from February 28 until April 14, 2003. Music Director and Conductor Cyril Stretansky will lead the 50-member group, which recently released Amazing Day, the 16th volume in its recording series.
This year's tour dates and locations include:
- Friday, February 28, 8 p.m. First Presbyterian Church, Clarks Summit, Pa.;
- Saturday, March 1, 7:30 p.m., Latrobe Presbyterian Church, Latrobe, Pa.;
- Sunday, March 2, 3 p.m., College of Southern Maryland Performing Arts Center, LaPlata, Md., and 7 p.m., Saint Martin's Lutheran Church, Annapolis, Md.;
- Monday, March 3, 7:30 p.m., Saint Paul's Lutheran Church, Beachwood, N.J.;
- Tuesday, March 4, 7:30 p.m., Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Berwick, Pa.;
- Friday, March 14, 8 p.m., First Presbyterian Church, Allentown, Pa.;
- Saturday, March 15, 8 p.m., The Community Church, Harrington Park, N.J.;
- Sunday, March 16, 3 p.m., Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa,
- Sunday, March 16, 7 p.m., Saint Paul's Lutheran Church, Doylestown, Pa.;
- Friday, March 21, 8 p.m., Salem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, Pa.;
- Saturday, March 22, 7:30 p.m., Saint Peter's Lutheran Church, Lancaster, Pa.;
- Sunday, March 23, 3 p.m., Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and 8 p.m., Saint Peter's Cathedral, Scranton. Pa.; and
- Sunday, April 14, 3 p.m., the Annual Return From Tour Concert, at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa.
For more information on the choir's tour schedule or recordings, contact Student Choir Manager Francis Anonia '03 at 372-4295 or log on to www.susqu.edu/choir/.
